Any bikers here???

[tytek]

I was looking at a GS but I didn't want to come across as a 'Ewan or Charley' wannabe.
Nice bikes all the same - and plenty of accessories.

The ex-army MT350's (or the older MT500's) are good sturdy bikes. I had a 500 for a while before I got my Tenere.
They are made to be easy to work on - you just need to be good with a hammer and a screwdriver!!!

[cornishtrailsloth]

Are there any bikers (motorbikers) here?

I haven't had much chance to get out on mine in recent days - due to the snow and ice.

I'm wanting to do a bit of semi wild camping on mine in the new year when the weather starts to get better.
I am after some hints and tips for travelling on the bike with all the gear I need but obviously not too much.

I used to have an old 1984 XT600 Tenere but I sold it due to the fact it was terrible on the motorway. I now have a GSXR 1100 so motorways are no longer an issue.

First post on here, been lurking for a while and not sure I can give any useful advice on luggage for the Gixer, Tytek, but couldn't resist the opportunity to talk bikes - took this one to Morocco and back and it coped with 3 weeks worth of stuff OK - mind you the heavy back end combined with dual purpose tyres gave it an evil high AND low speed weave!



currently thinking of a rough camp/bushcraft/trail riding trip on the Welsh borders but on a much smaller bike:



and do some of this:



which I'm hoping to make up some soft panniers and tank panniers for (some plan or other to use a couple of gasmask bags with magnets on the tank).

[tytek]

I had a pair of 1984 XT600's.
A Tenere and a 'normal' one. Great bikes, I still have a heap of spares (including a complete engine) I never needed...

My brother is considering selling his 2002 XT600 that is 'expedition ready' with all the panniers, etc.

[cornishtrailsloth]

Loved the Tenere early versions, Tytek, (not so keen on the new one) mine's an 02 as well, burning a bit of oil now (20,000 miles) - just bought a compression tester to try and start diagnosing the ailment - hoping it's a valve problem - but I only had one breakdown so far (regulator/rectifier) and of the three of us on XTs who went to Morocco we had zero problems with any of the bikes. Slow but dead simple and easy.

Going back to your original post - I s'pose it depends how much stuff you'll be taking and it's dimensions as to how to strap it all on the bike.

So far - for a short trip - I'm thinking: Tool kit/Tarp/sleeping bag/cooking stuff/torch/maps/RAC card/cash card and phone. I'd love to take a camp bed but they are seriously big and I can't run to £180 for the ultralite one (cool tho tis).

what else would you take?

[lavrentyuk]

So is anybody else coming to the Dragon Rally this year then ? Not very rough camping at all but fun all the same. This years venue is near Betws y Coed in Snowdonia.

If anybody is I'll be there with the Thumper Club and riding a 1977 R100S in faded red with a black cockpit fairing, haven't had the chance to fit a new alternator to the Tenere.

So come on, whose going ?

Richard

[cornishtrailsloth]

Just checked out the photos, Lavrentyuk - think I'll have to work on my cold weather tolerance a bit first!

[lyndon]

been without a bike for maybe three years in total since 1989...unfortunatly now is one of those times had a 1200 bandit last year i went camping on. ruck sacks are a terrible idea if you cant make it reach the seat, on an unfaired bike at least ((you can allways strap some kit to the pillion seat to achieve this ) did leeds to south wales in 3 hours once with three stops for fuel (its about 270 miles lol) coudnt feel my arms for 3 days.

been 195 mph on my old zx12r lost half the contents of my rucksack before i realised it had ripped open (on the section of private track between my house and work on a monday morning honest...officer )
cant imagine an extended trip of over a week on a bike tbh unless your useing hotels and ive never been able to afford that, doable with a 1000cc+ with luggage i supose but if you have the right bike for that sort of stuff your not a biker in my opinion, your a tourist that just happens to be on a bike.
ide say three days solo on a bike with no luggage is about it wild camping wich i have done many times on various bikes, only ever had a on//off road bike once a transalp and i never took it off road dosent seem to be an issue to take a faired bike a mile offroad if your on any sort of forestry track as long as it isnt to wet ofc.
i/we (the wife) are now at least 4 years from a new bike of any kind im 42 this year and the bike i buy next will be the last one i ever own (hopefully an 1800 suzuki my first ever custom ) looking to do a trip across america when the kids leave home ...but im trying to get the wife to agree to do it on a horse even though neither of us have ever riden even once lol
looking for an organised trip of at least 2000 mile take a few months off prob a pipe dream but what the hell will be memorable if it happens.

[lavrentyuk]

I have to say that I don't believe that the cubic capacity of a bike is at all related to its ability to tour. My best tourer was an MZ 300 two stroke single. Second best the Tenere 600. My BMW 1000 is fun but offers no touring advantage.

I even thoroughly enjoyed touring the west coast of Ireland on a Honda C90 once.

I really need to get an MZ going again, I had more fun on that than anything else I have ever ridden.

So is anybody coming to the Dragon Rally then ?

Richard

[rcastillo]

It's fully booked.

Richard

[cornishtrailsloth]

I even thoroughly enjoyed touring the west coast of Ireland on a Honda C90 once.

I really need to get an MZ going again, I had more fun on that than anything else I have ever ridden.



Richard

Haha - yes I know what you mean - it just imposes different sorts of limitations, I saw a guy on a mini-monkey bike in northern spain - absolutely loaded up and obviously off on a longish trip - but definitely having a ball.

Also there was a guy on Advrider (website) who has gone from Australia to London on a postman's moped!

(on the other hand the thought of cruising 2 up with luggage along the m'ways of europe on a big beemer has it's attractions)

[cornishtrailsloth]

been without a bike for maybe three years in total since 1989...unfortunatly now is one of those times had a 1200 bandit last year i went camping on. ruck sacks are a terrible idea if you cant make it reach the seat, on an unfaired bike at least ((you can allways strap some kit to the pillion seat to achieve this ) did leeds to south wales in 3 hours once with three stops for fuel (its about 270 miles lol) coudnt feel my arms for 3 days.

been 195 mph on my old zx12r lost half the contents of my rucksack before i realised it had ripped open (on the section of private track between my house and work on a monday morning honest...officer )
cant imagine an extended trip of over a week on a bike tbh unless your useing hotels and ive never been able to afford that, doable with a 1000cc+ with luggage i supose but if you have the right bike for that sort of stuff your not a biker in my opinion, your a tourist that just happens to be on a bike.
ide say three days solo on a bike with no luggage is about it wild camping wich i have done many times on various bikes, only ever had a on//off road bike once a transalp and i never took it off road dosent seem to be an issue to take a faired bike a mile offroad if your on any sort of forestry track as long as it isnt to wet ofc.
i/we (the wife) are now at least 4 years from a new bike of any kind im 42 this year and the bike i buy next will be the last one i ever own (hopefully an 1800 suzuki my first ever custom ) looking to do a trip across america when the kids leave home ...but im trying to get the wife to agree to do it on a horse even though neither of us have ever riden even once lol
looking for an organised trip of at least 2000 mile take a few months off prob a pipe dream but what the hell will be memorable if it happens.

We all need dreams mate - good on ya if you get to do it!

[Chambers]

I have a 97 ZX6R done a bit of touring in it but usually loaded the gear into a car and only carried bits. As its now my sole mode of transport Im in the middle of cobling together a rear rack (because I want it on the cheap) Should work, tent and bag on the rack and the rest in the bergan

[Martin1]

You dont need a big capacity bike or loads of money or the need to stay in hotels or even pay for campsites either to do extended touring.
I know I have said this once but I have loaded an MZ 250 up with an unbelievable amount of stuff travelling around France and Spain. Instead of my load getting smaller it got bigger because I (being a bit of a scavenger) picked up the likes of a full sunlounger off the beach and strapped that to the top of all my gear.
Heck on that trip (of 5 months) most of the money I spent would have been on fuel and ferry crossings.
I met a young guy from England in the Alps and he was on a Honda 50, loaded up with tent etc. So you use whatever you want. -or can afford.
I did the same traveling around the USA on a 30 year old Honda.
Sleeping in a variety of places from behind trees, the sides of streams to grass verges on deserted country roads. In fact anywhere I could pull off and try hide me and the bike.
More than once waking up with frost on my sleeping bag as I was too tired after riding into the night and/or it wasn't viable to put my tent up so slept next to my bike with a tarp thrown over.
Want to know how much I spent in 6 months? - about 500 quid. Yes 500 quid.
Just do it. You dont need wads of money. If that was the case I would have never ever been anywhere!
All you need is a bit of food to eat and a warm dry sleep.

[cornishtrailsloth]

You dont need a big capacity bike or loads of money or the need to stay in hotels or even pay for campsites either to do extended touring.
I know I have said this once but I have loaded an MZ 250 up with an unbelievable amount of stuff travelling around France and Spain. Instead of my load getting smaller it got bigger because I (being a bit of a scavenger) picked up the likes of a full sunlounger off the beach and strapped that to the top of all my gear.
Heck on that trip (of 5 months) most of the money I spent would have been on fuel and ferry crossings.
I met a young guy from England in the Alps and he was on a Honda 50, loaded up with tent etc. So you use whatever you want. -or can afford.
I did the same traveling around the USA on a 30 year old Honda.
Sleeping in a variety of places from behind trees, the sides of streams to grass verges on deserted country roads. In fact anywhere I could pull off and try hide me and the bike.

More than once waking up with frost on my sleeping bag as I was too tired after riding into the night and/or it wasn't viable to put my tent up so slept next to my bike with a tarp thrown over.
Want to know how much I spent in 6 months? - about 500 quid. Yes 500 quid.
Just do it. You dont need wads of money. If that was the case I would have never ever been anywhere!
All you need is a bit of food to eat and a warm dry sleep.

I guess you must get acclimatised to sleeping like that after a while - I haven't been able to kip well in a sleeping bag ever. I get cramps in my legs and can't get the temperature right, hope to gleen a bit more from others here on that subject.

Sounds like you had some teriffic trips there Martin, just hope you didn't have that sunlounger open up itself when you were going, sort of like an air brake!

Also,(hijack) bit of help required - do any of you know where to find the magnets that are used in tank bags - all I can find so far are those ridiculously strong (and small) molywhatsit ones, otherwise I'll look out for an old magnetic tank bag and recycle them from it.

Hi Chambers, a local blacksmith might make you up a basic frame/rack if they can fabricate and weld. I was lucky enough that my Bro in law is a smithy so he made mine, the local fabricators made my panniers, which was great cos it was to my specs exactly and didn't cost anywhere like what metal mortgage want for panniers.

[lavrentyuk]

Re the magnets - see if you can get them out of the back of an old cathode ray tube television. They usually had a ring doughnut shaped magnet at the back of the tube, or at least they did years ago.

Richard

[Chambers]

The other option for small powerful magnets (but not rediculous power) would be off the back of standard car speakers, take a trip to your local scrappy

[cornishtrailsloth]

Thanks for the great tips guys, sorry Tytek - hijack over.

Got any further with plans for carrying stuff on your bike?

There are loads of 'new buy' options for sports panniers, wouldn't some of those fit your bike?

[Chambers]

Thanks, I have borrowed a 12 tonne pipe bender and my brother is a welder so that no bother, its just a for now solution as the rennec one uses a complicated fitting kit to replace then handles, I am just going through the plastics and when I put the new plastics on if I still need a rack will just get a rennec rack

[demographic]

Thanks, I have borrowed a 12 tonne pipe bender and my brother is a welder so that no bother, its just a for now solution as the rennec one uses a complicated fitting kit to replace then handles, I am just going through the plastics and when I put the new plastics on if I still need a rack will just get a rennec rack

Rennec? Sure you don't mean Rentec? That's what I have on my old GSXR anyway.

[cornishtrailsloth]

Thanks, I have borrowed a 12 tonne pipe bender and my brother is a welder so that no bother, its just a for now solution as the rennec one uses a complicated fitting kit to replace then handles, I am just going through the plastics and when I put the new plastics on if I still need a rack will just get a rennec rack

Cool - sometimes it's good to have family!

[Chambers]

yeah thems the ones lol doh

[gsfgaz]

packed and ready ti go ...

[conall]

I have to say that I don't believe that the cubic capacity of a bike is at all related to its ability to tour. My best tourer was an MZ 300 two stroke single. Second best the Tenere 600. My BMW 1000 is fun but offers no touring advantage.

I even thoroughly enjoyed touring the west coast of Ireland on a Honda C90 once.

I really need to get an MZ going again, I had more fun on that than anything else I have ever ridden.

So is anybody coming to the Dragon Rally then ?

Richard

I agree, I have been over to France twice on my honda fmx650 supermoto and although I can only manage 100 miles between fill ups it's done brilliant I can do it with a 20 ltr daysack and some stuff bungeed on the pillion seat no problems

[cornishtrailsloth]

packed and ready ti go ...

make a bit of difference to your handling, no? What's your camping gear there - tent/tarp/hammock/bivvy? , what sort of sleeping bag and how small does it pack?
Do you wear a backpack as well?

I guess you wouldn't be trying to get too far off the tarmac on the bike, so park and pack up into carrying sack/bags?

Got a new bike then yet, Tytec? What you got/thinking of getting?

[tytek]

I have an old GSXR1100.

[gsfgaz]

on the bike there was a 2 man tent, a jaguar sleeping bag(4 season),packs to no a bad size,in the panniers was clothes, food, and most importantly beer for the party. Once i managed to get my leg over the bike the handling was good ,It was a bit light at the front but fine ..

[cornishtrailsloth]

on the bike there was a 2 man tent, a jaguar sleeping bag(4 season),packs to no a bad size,in the panniers was clothes, food, and most importantly beer for the party. Once i managed to get my leg over the bike the handling was good ,It was a bit light at the front but fine ..

s'pose you could always have ditched the tent and sleeping bag to improve the handling - Might have given you room for more beer!

I knew about the GSXR,Tytek, you were talking about going all 'Ewan and Charlie' tho.

(if you had got a big beemer I'd only have been jealous mind.)

[Biker]

Hi Checking in too.

Don't know how I missed this thread.

I have an old nail of a Kawasaki GPz600R had it now for about 9 years and clocked up a fair few miles on it back and forth to the UK from France, mostly without sleepovers. It's only 250 miles to the ferry port.

My brother and I did Canterbury to Inverness back in the early 80's. Me on my Yamaha RS125 he on his DT100. We didn't know any better. We were aiming for John O'groats but my crank shaft bearings went, somehow we managed to crawl back home in two days.
A couple of years later we finally did it again on our Honda 250's. Mine was an XL he had the CL. Both had the exact same single cylinder 4 valve engine. In fact the photo of us at John O'Groats is on the wall beside me right now. Later we went to Wales but I hated the place, but that's another story.

After that I went to a lot of biker rallys including, Magna Carta, pretty much all the Kent Custom Bike shows. Drink, Drop and Doss. Bulldog bash etc. Took a one man tent or roughed it under a tarp. Later I upgraded to a two man dome tent when I got married and the kids came along.

Haven't done much touring or camping since coming to France though. Too busy with artwork and real life stuff, but having found this forum and having my camping gland rejuvinated I want to get out there again. All my kit's still in a box in the basement, so I have no excuse really.

Been riding since I was 16, I'll be 48 in May. I've always owned a bike and love it, I can't imagine life without one.

Here's a pic of my old girl. My one wish is to have a traily bike again but she does me fine. The long term plan is to make her more survival bike with pouches and webbing etc. Maybe one day I'll actually do it. No rush, there's always next week.

Thanks for reading. I've enjoyed reading your stories too. Some of 'em were just

Aaron.

[PRKL]

i have ´85 fxwg hardtail and ´59 xlch "zero" harleys.

[wicca]

1997 Guzzi California. 1100cc injected. Load it with as much gear as you like, still pulls like a train.